


All of the While, it was You

by mcgarrygirl78



Series: Feels Like Heaven [10]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Drama, F/M, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 19:35:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6127831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She'd almost smiled at him a lot recently and he’d done the same.  But Ed was pulling back.  He was started to feel things and think about things that wouldn’t bring anything but trouble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All of the While, it was You

**Author's Note:**

> I can't seem to stop writing them, there is so much potential to explore. After being reminded of a wonderful scene with them in Parents’ Nightmare, this scene came to me. The title comes from the Landon Pigg song, Falling in Love in a Coffee Shop. It was appropriate.

Olivia walked into the Alphabet City coffee shop and took off her coat. It was raining but he was sitting right by the open window. He stood as she approached the table; she did the best she could not to smile about that. Now wasn’t the time for him to be a gentleman. Olivia would draw the line at him pulling out her chair.

“We've got to stop meeting like this.” She said as she sat down.

“We’ll do dinner next time. I’ll make it worth your while, I promise.”

“Is this my coffee?” Liv pointed to the cup in front of her, filled with black liquid.

“I didn’t do anything to it. I know how you like it depends on the day.”

“What kind of day is this going to be?” she speculated as she stopped a passing server and asked if they had any caramel creamer.

“This is your party Sergeant,” Ed sipped his coffee. “You tell me.”

“I signed up for the exam last night. I beat the deadline by 15 minutes.”

“You would've had to wait another two months if you hadn’t.”

“The test is in 90 days.”

“That gives you plenty of time to study. Not that I don’t have complete faith you're going to ace it. You know you had one of the top exam scores for Sergeant in the NYPD, right?”

“I figured if you passed then I shouldn’t have too many problems.” Liv said. The server came with her creamer. She thanked her and added it to her coffee. The sugar came next; it had been than kind of day.

“They took pity on me.” Ed said. “I was given the Lieutenant for dummies exam. Still passed it by the skin of my teeth.”

“You know, if this cop thing doesn’t work out for you, you can always take your show on the road.”

“Hotels, groupies, sold out shows…I'm trying to find the down side to that.”

Liv smiled. She covered her smile with her coffee cup. She didn’t want to smile at Ed Tucker, which she had done more than a few times lately. There was something about him. There had always been something about him but usually it made Olivia see red, not smile. 

Since he came to her a week and a half ago with news he’d gathered at 1PP, Liv had struggled to make sense of it. It was the ultimate heads up. If she wanted to keep her squad then she had to be a lieutenant. Not only that but Tucker went out on a limb and told pretty powerful people that she was already in the process of making that happen. He kept the barbarians at the gate and then came to warn her. 

Why? Olivia didn’t like things that she couldn’t explain. And the changes in Ed Tucker was one of those things. Over the past year they had to work together more than either of them would've liked. 

It turned out to be a true learning experience instead of the hell Olivia always imagined. Tucker wasn’t a piece of shit. Could he be? Absolutely. But he was a damn good cop and a fairly decent guy. Who knew?

“The exam book is pretty good and the practice tests are helpful.” He said. “Flash cards are going to be your best friend during this. If you need any help I'd be happy to provide it.”

“You’ve already helped. You didn’t have to tell me about any of this.”

“I know the shit that 1PP can pull when they think no one is looking. There is no way that SVU would ever have another captain as good as Don Cragen. They'd put a puppet in there who would tear the squad from limb to limb before a year was out. You know from experience that the guys in the offices have no idea what it takes to get the job done in the trenches.”

“Aren’t you one of the guys in the office now?” Liv asked.

“You take that back. What have I ever done to deserve that?”

“Hmm, let me count the ways.”

He looked at her. She was almost smiling. She'd almost smiled at him a lot recently and he’d done the same. But Ed was pulling back. He was started to feel things and think about things that wouldn’t bring anything but trouble. 

His job was hard enough. Olivia Benson would make it damn near impossible. The hands of fate had thrown them into each other a lot lately. It was less antagonistic than it had been in years past. He knew the lack of a certain male detective in the equation made that possible. 

A kind word here, a drink there, and a little moment where someone had the other’s back…the relationship had clearly begun to change. But Ed wasn’t the type to be soft because he liked someone. Except he kinda liked Olivia Benson. He kinda liked her a lot. How in the hell did that happen?

“I can be a son of a bitch. That’s on the record.” Ed said.

“As well it should be.”

“Still, I know a good leader when I see one, and you're a good leader Benson. You’ve been the heart of that squad since you walked through its doors too many years ago to count. To let some bean counting, pencil pusher take it away from you would be a tragedy.”

“I'm going to have to ask you to stop being nice to me. It’s much too late in the game to redraw battle lines.”

“There's nothing wrong with two old generals sitting down and reconfiguring the rules. Don’t forget, we’re on the same battlefield. New allies pop up and old ones turn against you on the daily.”

“So we’re allies?” Olivia asked. She was looking him straight in the eye, it had always been the best way to talk to Ed.

“Why the hell not?” he shrugged. “Nothing excites me more than a knuckle cruncher in the bottom of the ninth.”

“Bases loaded?” she sipped her coffee.

“And one of the best hitters on the mound. Changes are coming, they always do. The strong ones will weather the storm, the weak will get devoured, and some leaders will take a hard fall.”

“How have you managed to stay standing through all of this?”

“I have a strict set of morals…I never waver from them. That’s something you and I have in common.”

Liv nodded. Changes were always coming and usually Liv was expected to roll with the punches and somehow keep it all together. As a lieutenant she would have much more say in what did and didn’t happen where her squad was concerned. That would still give her little say; the upper echelon of the NYPD was nothing if not a dictatorship. But having someone else with power mostly on her side would never be a bad thing. 

An allegiance with Tucker would be a big step and possibly a bad one. Liv was treading carefully through all the landmines. Did she trust him more than Dodds? You're damn right she did. But that didn’t mean turning her back on him was a good idea. Despite all that she wasn’t sure she was feeling, Liv needed to keep her eyes wide open.

“So you wanna play the Thunderbolt to my Lightfoot?” she asked.

“I was thinking more the Starsky to your Hutch.”

“No way, I'm always gonna be Starsky.” Liv shook her head.

“You're an incredibly hard woman to please.” Ed smirked.

“You're a smart guy Tucker, maybe one day you’ll figure it out.”

The statement hung in the air like mist. Ed didn’t respond and Liv didn’t elaborate. They drank more coffee and then she looked at her watch. Time was getting away from her and the day was barely half over. 

She had to get back to the precinct, start on the mountain of paperwork waiting in her office. Heavy was the head that wore the crown. The crown was usually filled with paperwork. Finishing her coffee, Liv looked at her watch and then her companion.

“I need to go.”

“The offer to help you study still stands.” He said.

“I’ll think about it.”

“That’s fair.” Ed nodded.

Liv got up and walked away from the table. She stopped, turned, walked back, and looked at him.

“Tucker…”

“It’s fine.”

“But, Tucker…”

“No.” Ed held up his hand. “We don’t have to go there. You don’t owe me a thing.”

“Whatever.” She sighed heavily. “Just so you know…”

“I do.” he nodded.

“We’re not finishing each other’s thoughts now, are we?”

“The implications of such would be too crazy to even contemplate.”

“I’ll see you around.”

“Be careful out there.”

Liv nodded and walked away. Ed watched her go. He pulled a cigarette from his trench coat and lit it. This was one of the last places on the city where you could actually smoke indoors. He wondered how they got away with that. Now wasn’t the time to make that his top priority. 

He needed to shake off Olivia Benson. That was his least favorite part of every recent encounter. And what did a man do after an encounter that left him both sated and wanting more; he had a smoke. As she walked past the window, they looked at each other. She always held his gaze and Ed wasn’t going to be the one who looked away first. He'd done that enough, wanted to see what it might be like if he held on a little longer.

***


End file.
